I was an Investor along with my Father back in the 1970’s in the Private Company. We only had token shares in Auto-Train Corporation while it was a Private Company. I was just a dumb kid at the time enamored by trains…so nothing has changed there. What drove them out of business was:
Concerted and Coordinated efforts by the regulated Airline Industry (gee, where is Sam1 on this?). What the airlines did here was to form agreements with the rental car companies in Orlando for lower rates. So when you bought an airline ticket to Orlando for Walt Disney the rental car rate would be heavily discounted making the taking of the car on the train and the time Auto-Train took…not as competitive. It was a deliberate attempt to take the trains market away because the Chicago - Florida traffic is so lucrative. I am not saying anything underhanded took place here but definitely airlines played a large role in the trains demise as a Private Operation. The Louisville-Sanford train was competing with the Chicago-Orlando Airline route specifically.
The second reason stated of course was the lines being used by Auto-Train experienced derailments suffering from deferred maintenence and 2 of the derailments I believe were Auto-Train itself, damaging a large portion of their equipment. For a thin margi
Interesting story. I suppose some here would say what the airlines did to Auto Train was just playing hardball, but I wonder if the lucrative loss leader car rental rates went up after the AT’s demise?
I found a 1957 scedulre for the City of Miami and the South Wind on line. Both left about 9am and took 24 hours to Jacksonville. Based on current Amtrak schedules, Jacksonville to Orlando would add about three hours.
The City swung off the IC’s main at Fulton, KY and ran to connections at Birmingham. The South Wind ran through Indianapolis, Louisville, Nashville and Birmingham. I don’t recall the exact routes beyond, but I know that the City did not run through Atlanta, and I don’t think the South Wind stopped there either.
As other here have indicated, a more direct route, say something that would be more in line with Interstate Highway routing (I-65, I-24, I75), entcounters a very broad section of the Appalachian mountain chain. With the mountain ridges running generally northeast-southwest, rail routes running from Chicago to the far south-east were built to deal with the terrain and didn’t leave much for running passenger trains even at speeds up to 79MPH.
I don’t have the route miles for either of the above two trains, but Mapquest puts Chicago-Orlando at 1100 miles and 18 hours drive time. All things considered, I doubt that any route could be put together today that would be less than 30 hours, and maybe close to 40. I like trains, but…
American business and manufacturing history is rife with such stories. We often quickly rebuff what we have in favor of something new, or cheaper, only to find the original may have been better, or at least desireable. Try buying, for instance, a home photo electric cell to turn lights on and off. The cheap manufacturing of the item (and cheap, not inexpensive) has run higher priced and more reliable and durable units to oblivion, not available anymore. We abandoned rail transit lines in favor of gas/diesel bus routes in the 40’s and 50’s only to be seeking rail services again in the 90’s and 2000’s usually over or near the same routes that were abandoned. And today we’re again lookinng at the passenger train as a means of moving people again.
JIm Wrinn has a feature article in the February 2008 issue of Trains on the CSX Southeastern Corridor between Chicago and Jacksonville. It lists 15 projects underway between Danville IL and Nashville, and 13 more between Atlanta and Jacksonville. I can’t remember if it says anything about passenger trains.
If Indiana wants service through Indianapolis, they’ll have to provide funding.
Yes, the thought is to use the Montgomery-Waycross line, which is dark territory. Most of the Birmingham-Waycross traffic uses the former ACL since it is signaled.
The line across the Florida Panhandle was all dark until after the ACL-SAL merger, when, I understand, the signals from the SAL’s line through Charleston were removed and installed on the Baldwin-Chattahoochee line of the former SAL.
Jeaton, in a later post you mentioned the routing of the City of Miami and the South Wind. The CM entered Georgia at Columbus, and ran to Waycross through Albany. The SW ran to Montgomery from Birmingham, and thence to Waycross–but did not enter the main station at Waycross, stopping at the Oklahoma Ave. station and then swinging south towards Folkston. Of the three major routes Chicago-Jacksonville that ran over the ACL, only the “Dixie Route” (C&EI-L&N-NC&SL-(CG)-ACL went through Atlanta. As I recall, this was the shortest in miles.
jeaton, I take Mapquest’s times with a grain of salt. The time you quoted indicates an average speed of sixty-one miles an hour, plus. Two buddies and I drove from Chicago to Tampa (a difference of approximately seventy-three miles, according to Mapquest) stopping only for fuel, restroom breaks, and drive-through type food. It took us twenty-four hours. For the same Tampa route, Mapquest claims eighteen hours, twenty-nine minutes.
If I could take an Auto Train, I would not have a problem with six hours more of travel time. But, I’m a railfan. [;)]
Twelve-hours-less-time spent in Orlando (“La-La-Land, East”) would result in a net $$$ saving to you, the breadwinner, especially if you are traveling with kids. Less time to spend your hard-earned ‘bucks’ on "scrum" (that’s what the carnival workers call the Kewpie dolls and gee-gaws) to be forwarded to Hollywood. If you want to see Florida, avoid Orlando, and environs. If you like plastic alligators and snakes, have fun! If it don’t have a beach, it ain’t Florida! Keep your ears on!
Just how would you get from NOL to JAX? That Amtrak service has been suspended on the “Sunset Limited” since “Katarina, the Great”. Perhaps FEMA would donate the thousands of mobile homes that have been bought, and paid for (by Uncle Sam), unused, and condemned, for a true “Trailer Train”! Maybe a one-way trip for them, leaving them in Orlando, would be cool!
If we would count on our Governor providing State funds for Amtrak to bring passenger train service thru Indiana…Don’t hold your breath.
Hays:
I hear you with the plastic crap, etc…and all the rest around Orlando…Very much a hodgepodge of tourist trap setups, etc…But…everyone has to choose what they desire for the Florida entertainment. We, {our family}, over the years since it opened in '71 have had so much enjoyment at Disney World…One just escapes from the real world for a while…And I mean by staying there on site. Enjoyed it all for years. Of course one can enjoy other parts of Florida too…But, there is so much hodgepodge of the plastic…made for tourists all around. Pick a quality place and it’s much fun.